Linux - Stop holding our kids back

[dandart]

We can't have that..... I'll have to retaliate by giving out more disks.

[GNU-Fan]

A follow-up - as mentioned on Slashdot.

I enjoyed reading the follow up a lot more than the first one.

when she saw a gaggle of giggling 8th grade boys gathered around a laptop, the last thing she expected to see on that screen was a spinning cube.

Holy ****! Compiz is holding our youth back.

[Bemk]

This story is just sad,

My ICT teacher doesn't really like me, because he says that Microsoft crap is the best and we should all be using it. Linux is talked about like it is a piece of dirt, I, on the other hand, Like Linux and think there is no such a thing as "the best OS". I do believe in "The best OS for a specific person" and for me that is GNU/Linux. My schools admins don't really like the way Linux is treated on our school, but our school is just part of a group of schools so they can't swich without permission from the direction, above all of the schools.

I often talk with our financial conrector and he want's the school to switch to FOSS, the only point is that OS'es just don't get on the top of the topics list. "There is always something more important" our conrector says. Right now I am working on an LFS system which I am going to use to set up a Linux community at my school. The conrector and the admins will like it. I think I'm going to make 3 or 4 releases:

1. Noob edition (Super easy menu system, like in linpus)
2. Moderate user edition (Normal Gnome, KDE, Openbox or XFCE desktop)
3. Advanced user edition (CLI only)
4. (not entirely sure about this one) Server edition

Maybe the conrector can get some people to agree that Linux is a fine system. The E-mail is really possible, and some people are actually thinking the same way at my school (I know, it's a total nightmare), my ICT teacher should realy know better.

I've taken a look at this Linux != Windows article and I'll use it to get my mark back up next time when he says my code isn't user friendly (bind keys and optional menu's with optional menu items) while you can tweak my application to suit your needs, so what isn't user friendly?

[elija]

I enjoyed reading the follow up a lot more than the first one.

The author may be back tracking but I am still very angry about this, but not specifically for the Linux thing.

As a child I was a strange mix of very stubborn and very fragile.

If I knew I was right then I couldn't be budged however, if I was trying to learn independently and a teacher, and in my day* teachers were respected and feared, took that attitude with me it would have destroyed me.

It happened with a history teacher but we won't go there, I'm still bitter.

In my opinion and this is only my opinion someone who would display that attitude to learning without bothering to check the facts shouldn't be teaching. The main things that teachers should instill in their pupils are a sense of curiosity and a love of learning as both will stick with them long after the specific lessons have been forgotten. As far as I can see, she would have crushed both.

I wish I could stop thinking about this as the more I do, the angrier I get.

* 30+ years ago

[teenytinylinuxgrl]

Omygoodness!!!

I know this thread is several months old, but I'm new here and found this thread in a search using the word "kids." I just finished eighth grade and haven't really run into this kind of thing, thankfully, but it's amazing that adults can be so willfully ignorant that they squash kids' enthusiasm for science and technology.

All the more reason to try and start a Linux Users group at my school next year! I hope I can find a teacher who is willing to be a facilitator. If there isn't such a thing already somewhere, LUGs need to offer something for kids. And I don't just mean "Here's an Edubuntu disk, kid. Run along and play now."

Amy